We knew everything we needed to know about Bertie Ahern from the moment his mentor Charlie Haughey declared that of all the young thrusters in Fianna Fail, Ahern was “the most skillful, the most devious, the most cunning of them all”. It’s tempting to conclude that this endorsement provided sufficient grounds for barring Ahern from public office. Then again, the Irish electorate seems to prefer its leaders crooked.
There’s a fine old story – only possibly apocryphal – in which a little old lady tells a journalist that no, she wouldn’t dream of voting for Garret Fitzgerald: how can you trust a man who lives in the same small house he owned before he ever entered politics? If a party leader can’t get rich himself how’s he going to manage the country? Well, Bertie passed that test allright.
So Bertie is gone
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